The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rawlins Field Office will host an open house for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a proposed expansion of natural gas development in Carbon and Sweetwater counties, Wyo. The public is invited to the open house on Jan. 15, 2013 from 4-7 p.m. at the Jeffrey Memorial Community Center, 315 W. Pine St., Rawlins, Wyo.

A presentation will be made at 5:30 p.m. and the public will have a chance to view maps and posters of the project and ask BLM specialists questions regarding the proposal.

The DEIS evaluates the potential impacts of the Continental Divide-Creston (CD-C) Natural Gas Development Project. This project would allow additional natural gas development in the existing Continental Divide/Wamsutter II and Creston/Blue Gap natural-gas fields. Specifically, the project would develop up to 8,950 additional natural gas wells, including 100 to 500 coal bed natural gas wells, using a combination of vertical and directional drilling techniques, during the next 15 years. The wells could produce an estimated 12.02 trillion cubic feet of natural gas during the project’s anticipated 30 to 40 year life.

The project is located on 1.1 million acres in the checkerboard pattern of mixed land ownership comprised of 59 percent federal, 37 percent private and 4 percent state-owned land. The eastern boundary of the project is approximately 25 miles west of Rawlins, Wyo. with the western boundary approximately 50 miles east of the city of Rock Springs.

BP American Production Co. is the project applicant. The proposed facilities would include well pads, gas and water collection pipelines, compressor stations, water disposal systems, an access road network and an electrical distribution system. The CD-C project area was first developed for natural gas in the 1950s and currently supports more than 4,000 wells. Presently, there are 49,218 acres of surface disturbance, including nearly 8,500 acres of long-term disturbance, in the project area.

The BLM worked closely with federal, state and local partners, members of the environmental and conservation communities as well as other interested stakeholders to develop the DEIS and help ensure an appropriate balance between energy development and protection of the area’s natural resources.

The comment period is also being extended from 45 to 90-days. Written comments will now be accepted until March 6, 2013. Comments may be emailed to: Continental_Divide_Creston_WYMail@blm.gov, faxed to 307-328-4224, or mailed to the Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins Field Office, P.O. Box 2407, Rawlins, WY 82301.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM's mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.